1. Field
The present application relates to an image processing method, a computer-readable storage medium, an image processing apparatus, and an imaging apparatus extracting information of a flare from a shot image.
2. Description of the Related Art
When shooting is performed by a shooting optical system having a DOE (Diffractive Optical Element), if a quite highly luminous object (bright point) exists in a shooting angle of view, a flare (color flare) with color blurring occurs in a periphery of a bright point image on a shot image. This color flare gives an unnatural impression to the shot image, and particularly, it is significantly unnatural compared to an achromatic flare.
Accordingly, Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent No. 4250513) discloses an electronic camera that previously stores imaging characteristic data of a shooting optical system, estimates a flare component based on the data and a position of bright point on a shot image, and reduces the flare component from the shot image.
However, the flare component actually occurred in the shot image depends not only on the imaging characteristic of the shooting optical system but also on a wavelength spectrum included in the bright point, so that it is difficult for the electronic camera described in Patent Document 1 to estimate the flare component with a sufficient accuracy.
Further, even if it is tried to execute a flare reduction method described in Patent Document 1 using software of a computer, since data sufficient for estimating the flare component is not given to a normal shot image (JPEG image, for example), the execution of the method is not possible.